A few months ago, I posted a THM-friendly sample menu covering “A Typical Week in the Life of Briana Thomas” (what an ostentatious title…haha). It’s a great menu, but I’ve changed a few things around since then to reflect some things I’ve learned about how my body handles food, so I thought I should create another sample menu with a revised version of what my typical week in food looks like. CLICK HERE for a post that covers a lot of what I’ve been experimenting with lately. In a nutshell, here are some of the things I’m focusing on:

MORE E MEALS | Since I’ve been working out more faithfully, I’ve found that my body likes more carbs to give it energy. Plus, I have (or rather, had) a habit of getting stuck in an S rut and I wanted to switch up my calorie load by incorporating more E and FP meals and snacks. THM doesn’t count calories, but it pays to be calorie conscious, especially if you like food as much as I do! Carbs and protein are lower in calories than fats are, so it’s beneficial to switch things up and not include fats in every.single.meal. Now that I’ve been on plan for 4 years, I’ve found that E meals fill me up just as much as S meals do! At the beginning of my THM journey, that wasn’t the case, but my body has balanced itself and likes E and S meals equally. Actually, I crave a good E meal these days, and sometimes I have to be careful to get enough healthy fats into my diet! How do I know what fuel type to do when? I just listen to my body. I can just tell if I need more carbs for energy – or more satiating fats after a run of E meals. Don’t be afraid to stack a few E meals back to back, but then go back and give your body a few S meals with foundation fats like coconut oil to let it get rid of excess glucose. Everything in balance, mamas!

LIGHTER S MEALS | Instead of loading up on cheese, cheese, more cheese, some cream cheese, oodles of peanut butter, and a swish of heavy cream, I try to pull back the excess fats and use them in moderation. More often than not, I don’t even eat cheese on my salad! If I do, it’s a light sprinkling. I don’t mind loading up on coconut oil or using a pat of butter, though! These foundational fats burn more efficiently in my body. I’m not saying that I don’t eat cheese, cream cheese, peanut butter, and heavy cream! I’m just saying that I eat about half as much of them as I used to! I was really overdoing them for awhile and I wasn’t losing any weight! If you find your weight loss stalling, try cutting back on these heavier fats and eating “smarter” S meals. This can mean thinning down your Ranch dressing, not eating dessert after every meal, and using a smear of peanut butter on your celery stick instead of a heaping glob. Be content with less – we Americans tend to live a very extravagant lifestyle, and that doesn’t just affect our waistlines.

FEWER DESSERTS, LIGHTER DESSERTS | I have a strong sweet tooth. (Well, I like dessert. A lot. I do tend to sweeten my recipes less than most people do, but I LOVE dessert.) A meal doesn’t seem complete without dessert! That’s a problem. It’s all in my head, and it’s a mind game that I need to be able to win. You’ll notice that this menu still includes dessert in most lunches and dinners, but a) not always, b) sometimes it’s in the form of fruit, and c) when I do eat dessert, it’s a lighter dessert and my portions are moderate. This is a personal battle that I felt I needed to conquer for my own personal development, and whaddya know – it makes a difference in my weight loss as well as my self control…. Do I eat the food, or does the food eat me?

DON’T EAT AT NIGHT | The late night snacks are what get me. Even if I exercise, if I eat a full-blown snack between 9 and 10 pm (or later!), I do.not.lose.weight. I finally put two and two together and have been experimenting with not eating after supper, and WOW. Results. I’m quite hungry when I wake up in the morning, but I feel good! Sometimes I’m even hungry before I go to bed, but not usually too hungry if I actually go to bed at a decent hour. Sometimes if I’m super super hungry I’ll eat just a few bites of something, but a very small amount. I try to eat a solid supper to hold me over until the next morning, focusing on plenty of protein and including a small dessert to put my mind at rest for the evening, and then I’m done for the night. I end up eating less this way than I would if I would save my dessert for 3 hours later. Now sometimes, like on weekends, I’ll let myself have a little something sweet before I go to bed, but in general I’m trying to stay away from that. If I exercise, I often eat some protein afterwards, but I stick to straight protein with hardly any fat or carb source with it (i.e. low-fat Greek yogurt, deli meat, etc.).

You may not need to do things like I do. You may be able to eat cheesecake after every meal and still lose weight. I’m just a stubborn loser and I’m experimenting with things that will help me. If you’re in my shoes, maybe you can get some ideas from this menu. I hope so!

Some notes about the menu:

Breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack are for one person. Dinners are for a family.

I try to keep things simple and don’t mind eating the same thing for breakfast multiple times throughout the week. You don’t have to!

If anything could be tweaked on this menu, I’d say it could use a little more coconut oil and veggies.

On Sundays our main meal is at lunch and we’re on our own for supper. I allow myself slightly richer foods on Sundays. It’s a day of rest, after all. 😉

Comments

What you wrote resonates so much with my heart. I know what you mean about conquering our flesh (and the battle in our minds) regarding desserts and eating after bed. I also know what you mean about Americans having so much. What a lesson we can learn when we go without!! Thanks for sharing your heart and your experiences. You bless me.

You mentioned that you after a workout you mostly just have protein – no cards or fats. So does that mean you are just having a whey protein shake? Do you then wait 3 hours to eat again or do you eat a full meal sooner than that?